Thoughts...

Well, it's been 5 weeks since I left San Diego. So much has happened in that sort amount of time. It really is difficult for me to explain what I've been experiencing. This is firstly because every day is different and never seems to go quite as planned. However, Africa is a very hard place to understand, at least without being here. Unfortunately, it seems that it is one of those 'you had to be there' type of experiences. A little over a week back, I realized that everything I had read or watched or heard about Africa was wrong. It's not necessarily that these are complete lies. But it seems that everything we are exposed to regarding Africa is very biased. It's looking for a reaction. Media uses a specific combination of images, words, and sounds to get that reaction from the audience. No matter how pure the motives are, this still taints the truth. Often you are only shown what the group wants yo to see and they take out all the rest.

Unfortunately, every issue, whether it be poverty, slavery, the AIDS crisis, or any number of problems, cannot be solved within culture if we take it out of culture and all the surrounding implications. Everything is connected within cultures. To pick out one problem and look at a solution from our worldview would do no good.

The same could be said for ministry. It's easy enough to say that we are going to make disciples, but doing it is so much harder. It is also nearly impossible to win others to Christ if we approach them in the same way that we approach people in our own culture. This is something I have been struggling with. I know how to be effective in my own culture, but now I need to be effective here. This is a place that is so complex. It's hard to explain. It helps a lot to have the missionaries who have been here for years and have a much better idea of how to impact these people. However, I'm finding that what really needs to happen is a transformation within myself. To be effective in the culture I need to become part of it. To take part in their triumphs and tribulations. To share in their pain and their happiness. I know that I must humble myself and become I child of the Zarma culture, just as Christ came into the Jewish culture as a child.

"The lesson here is that becoming an incarnate in another culture will be a trial by fire, a test of inner strength, of personal faith, and most of all, a test of the veracity of one's love. An individual who is not ready to give up being an American for a time, and to begin learning as a child, is not ready for the challenge of cross-cultural ministry."

Please pray that I will have such a strong love for the lost Zarma people that will indeed be willing to humble myself and become a learner of the culture so that I might become part of it and be more effective for the Kingdom of God.